Comprehensive Study Skills
Welcome to Comprehensive Study Skills. In this class we will begin by exploring some fundamental ideas about learning. Then, we will look at and practice some specific skills that can help make you a more effective student.
Below, you can find copies of class materials and links to aditional resources that mnight be helpful.
What is Learning and Principles of Learning
In this part of the course, we examine some fundamental prinicples of learning to understand how to become a more effective student. Some of teh key concepts are Blooms Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Principles of Learning and Active vs Passive Learning.
To find out more about Bloom's Taxonomy, read through this pdf file from the University of Arkansas in the US. Or, you can wathc the video below for an overview of Bloom's Taxonomy.
For more on being an active learner, check here.
Understanding the Forgetting Curve
This week we looked at the forgetting curve, a graph that shows the relationship between memory and time for things we study. To find out more about teh forgetting curve, read this article from the Uiversity of Waterloo.
General Study Skills
This week, we looked at 10 study tips from experts. For homework, please read and prepare a written summary of ONE of the following articles. You will also need to explain this article to a classmate next week.
Group A - Rereading is inefficient. Here are 8 tips for studying smarter.
Group B - Highlighting is a waste of time. The best and worst learning techniques.
You can also find the study skills video used in class at this link. https://www.screencast.com/t/Ekgd6yGSl
Forming an Effective Study Group
This week we covered some tips for forming an effective study group. For more information check out the how to guide here or the short video here.
You can also read a good article on why study groups are good for you here.
Asking Questions
This week we looked at your questioning habits. For advice on asking good questions, take a look at these two articles.
Group A Questioning imporves your learning, if you ask the right questions.
Active and Critical Reading
In this section of the course, we looked at what it means to be an active and critical reader.
For more information on active reading, check out this website from Dartmouth College. It features a series of handouts (which you can read actively) with more informaton on different aspect of active reading.
For more information on critical reading, the UNiversity of Toronto has an interesting article about the connection between critical reading and writing.
Time Management Skills
Time management skills are very important for university students. Finding a way to balance your class worklaod, part time job, club activities and social life can be difficult. Click here to take an online quiz to check your time management skills. You can get some advice about improving your time management skills in this article from Princeton University.
Goal Setting
Setting SMART goals is important for students but it is also very importnat in business. Here is a short article about how business people apply the idea of SMART goals. How much of this advice can you use?
In class, we wacthed an interesting video about keeping your goals private. Check below to watch that video one more time. You can also read more about Derk Silvers' ideas about goal setting here.
Dealing with Stress
Stress is a part of life and for univesity students studying can be very stressful. The University of Florida has some good advice for students dealing with stress. The University of British Columbia also has some interesting information on the conncetion between stress and mental health.
We also looked at the idea that maybe not all stress is bad. For more information on that idea, wacth this video from Kelly McGonigal.